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Join the RA to celebrate Israel @ 75
May 3rd - June 1st, 2023
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Ki Mitziyon Tetzei Ahavah (v’Torah)
Led by Peretz Rodman
Monday, May 1st
2:30-3:30pm ET, 11:30am-12:30pm PT, 9:30-10:30pm Israel
Are you ready to make a commitment to teaching Torah from and about Israel on a monthly basis? Join us for Torah - and love - from Israel, by way of our esteemed colleagues. Each month we will learn sources for a parashah several weeks hence from an Israeli colleague. The 60-minute session will afford us an opportunity to learn, share ideas and stories, and begin to craft Divrei Torah. The objective is to bring Torah and love from Israel to our communities. This monthly series is provided to us by the Israel Educational Encounters team.
We will have a look at the strange last chapter of Leviticus (in advance of reading Behar-Beḥukkotai on May 13th), which details the very odd practice of “`erkekha” - pledging the value of a particular person, of an animal, or of a parcel of land. The focus will be on the question of how one values a human being, of all things, and will derive a ḥiddush from the order of categories there. This session will be in Hebrew.
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A New Prayer for Israel
Led by Alan Elsner and Eric Rosin
Wednesday, May 3rd
1:30-2:30pm ET, 10:30-11:30am PT, 8:30-9:30pm Israel
In his New York Times OpEd (3/7/23), Thomas Friedman wrote: "My own middle-of-the-road Conservative synagogue in Maryland recently substituted its own 'Alternative Prayer for the State of Israel,' written by a congregant, Alan Elsner. It is built around key lines from Israel’s Declaration of Independence - vowing that Israel must always be built on 'freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel' - and says, 'Let us pray that these words will continue to guide Israel’s leaders.'" Join us for a conversation with Alan Elsner about the Prayer for Israel, moderated by our colleague Eric Rosin.
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Praying for Peace In Israel (while not praying for Israel’s government)
Led by Jeremy Kalmanofsky
Thursday, May 11th
12:00-1:00pm ET, 9:00-10:00am PT, 7:00-8:00pm Israel
When our colleague Jeremy Kalmanofsky felt that Israel’s government was not worthy of receiving the traditional prayer for the State of Israel (Forward, 1/6/2023), he introduced Psalm 122 to his congregation as a temporary option. Join him to discuss this process.
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Zionism’s Redemptions: Images of the Past and Visions of the Future
Led by Professor Arieh Saposnik
Wednesday, May 17th
12:00-1:00pm ET, 9:00-10am PT, 7:00-8:00pm Israel
In this talk, we will explore how Zionism understood itself and the redemptive vision that was so central to it. Based on this exploration of its history, Professor Saposnik, former Director of UCLA Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies, and present UCLA Gilbert Foundation Chair, and Associate Professor of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures, will hope to suggest that the greatest challenge faced by Zionism today is to transcend those - detractors and would-be supporters and leaders alike - who would make of Zionism little more than a xenophobic, exclusionary, militant chauvinism and rediscover within itself the humanistic, liberationist movement and idea that it sought to be in so many of its historical manifestations and articulations.
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RootOne Israel B’nai Mitzvah Program Info Session
Led by Ilana Garber, Michelle Rich, and Elyssa Ronik
Thursday, June 1st
12:30-1:00pm ET, 9:30-10:00am PT
Sustain the pipeline and build our future by sending teens to Israel! Join us for a brief info session about RootOne funding available to your teens for their summer trips to Israel. This new incentive starts as early as the Bar/Bat/B* Mitzvah, and it will encourage families to maintain synagogue membership while committing to their children’s Jewish futures. It’s WIN/WIN/WIN and we want YOU to be part of it! This session will be recorded and sent out to those who register. Open to RA rabbis, rabbis in USCJ congregations, and staff/lay leaders who might support this program’s functioning in your community.
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